Inter-communal clashes in late December 2022 in Sudan’s South Darfur State spread to 16 villages and resulted in 11 people killed and 18 wounded, according to information from the State Ministry of Health. As a result of ongoing conflict, health facilities in the area are reporting severe shortages of trauma supplies, medicines and anaesthetic drugs.
Thanks to technical support from WHO, preparedness measures by the State Ministry of Health ensured that a WHO-Ministry joint assessment team was able to quickly coordinate with all health partners on the ground to develop an immediate intervention plan.
WHO had already pre-positioned trauma and interagency emergency health kits for South Darfur State; additional supplies enough for 200–500 surgical interventions were also dispatched to the state’s Nyala Hospital in response to the influx of injured victims.
With approximately 2221 households having fled the violence, assessment teams from WHO and the Federal Ministry of Health conducted joint missions to identify the needs of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps that received the fleeing populations in 4 different localities.
As a result of the rapid needs assessment by humanitarian partners, WHO will support the Ministry to run 4 mobile clinics for 2 months until the situation stabilizes. WHO also will provide medical supplies, including essential medicines, equipment and incentives to the health staff.
The joint assessment teams provided on-the-job training for medical staff in health facilities to enhance surveillance abilities for the detection of and reporting on outbreaks, especially diarrhoeal diseases, in a timely manner.
Covering 127 300 km² in the southwest of Sudan, South Darfur State is home to over 5 million people hailing from various tribes and speaking different languages, factors which have motivated a history of inter-communal violence.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Source: Apo-Opa
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